Take the hormone testosterone. Testosterone (T) is known as the male sex hormone—but females have a fair bit of it too. Men, in particular, rely on testosterone to burn fat, build muscle, grow bone, and stay sexually healthy. 

In this article, you’ll learn the signs of low levels of testosterone, how diet and exercise affect testosterone levels, and—yes—the answer to the $64,000 question: can the keto diet boost low testosterone levels? Read on. 

What Is Testosterone?

Testosterone is a steroid hormone—a chemical messenger that gives orders to your cells. 

Grow, says testosterone to bone and muscle cells. Burn, says testosterone to fatty acids in your blood. And so they do. 

Men have about 15 times more circulating testosterone than females. In fact, many functions of testosterone, such as regulating sperm production, are male-specific.

But women depend on testosterone too. Suprisingly enough, testosterone is the most abundant sex hormone in the female body—even moreso than estrogen levels!

Testosterone, you’ve probably heard, is an anabolic hormone. This simply means that high amounts of T promote growth in muscle, bone, and even red blood cells.

An exception to the testosterone equals growth rule? Fat. 

That’s right. Unlike estrogen, testosterone helps you oxidize (burn) rather than store lipids.

Low Testosterone Symptoms

After age 30 or so, testosterone drops significantly with each passing decade. As you might expect, men experience these drops more acutely than women.

Besides aging, other causes of lower testosterone levels include drugs, chemotherapy, testicular disease, and genetic disorders like Klinefelter syndrome.

Here are the Symptoms of Low Testosterone:

• Increased body fat 
• Lower bone density
• Loss of muscle mass
• Lower libido
• Decreased red blood cell production (possible anemia)
• In men, decreased testicle size 

If you or your doctor notice any of these symptoms, consider testing your testosterone levels. 

Testosterone Testing

There are three main methods for testing testosterone:

1. Blood testing: Total serum testosterone is best measured between 8 AM and 10 AM. Anywhere from 300 nanograms per deciliter to 900 nanograms per deciliter is generally considered normal. Depending on the results, your doctor may follow up by testing follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) two key sex hormones involved in testosterone production.
   
   
2. Saliva testing: Though less studied than blood testing, some research suggests salivary testosterone is a valid measure.
   
   
3. Urine testing: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has used urine tests for decades to monitor testosterone abuse in Olympic athletes. The DUTCH test is a popular option available on the market.
   

What Affects Testosterone?

Testosterone production is a big bag of complexity. Welcome to the human body. 

Genes, age, and environment – all of them determine testosterone levels. Many of these factors aren’t within your control. 

But one is within your control: how you live your life. 

Take sleep, for instance. In one study, one week of sleep restriction (five hours per night) decreased daytime testoterone levels by 10 to 15 percent in healthy young men.

So yes. Your sex drive is determined, in part, by your sleep habits. 

Exercise is another big one. Both weight training and high intensity interval training (HIIT) have been shown to boost testosterone levels.

Now then. On to diet.  

Diet and Testosterone

When it comes to diet and testosterone, there are two main levers you can pull:

1. How much you eat
2. The macronutrient composition (carbs, protein, fat) of your diet

First, calories matter. Long-term calorie restriction, it’s been shown, not only reduces bone density and muscle mass, but also reduces testosterone levels.

But there’s a caveat. Temporarily cutting calories to lose weight can boost testosterone. This has been shown in obese men. Why? For one, losing weight increases insulin sensitivity, which helps leydig cells (testosterone-producing cells in testicles) produce testosterone in the testes.

What you eat also affects your T levels. For instance, higher carb intake appears to prevent testosterone from plummeting after intense exercise. But other research suggests that high-fat diets outperform high-carb diets for muscle building and testosterone production.

Can A Keto Diet Raise Testosterone Levels?

You’ve heard of the ketogenic diet. It’s a low-carb diet that has you eating about 75 percent of calories from fat. The rest is protein. Carbs are minimized. And yes, early research of the overall health benefits indicates that going keto can raise testosterone.

Researchers split 25 young men into two diets – keto and high-carb – then had both groups resistance train for 11 weeks. The results were interesting. The keto dieters not only had greater reductions in fat mass, but also had significant bumps in total testosterone.

When you see a 118 nanogram per deciliter increase in 11 weeks, that’s enough to take someone that’s considered ‘low testosterone’ into significantly higher testosterone and within normal range. – Celebrity Health Coach Thomas DeLauer,

Okay, so one result doesn’t prove keto is the ultimate testosterone diet. But it does suggest that keto is compatible with healthy T.  

Why, exactly, keto raises testosterone isn’t obvious. The mechanism likely involves the much-maligned molecule known as cholesterol. Think of cholesterol as raw material for testosterone production. More raw materials in, more testosterone out.

Here’s the thing. With all those healthy fats, the keto diet is incredibly rich in cholesterol. From the perspective of testosterone, this is a good thing. 

And no. According to the science, dietary cholesterol does not raise your risk for heart disease. That myth has been debunked.

The Final Word

Time for a quick recap of this learning session.

2. 2. • Testosterone helps you build muscle, grow bone, and burn fat. 
      • Low testosterone (often due to aging) presents as brittle bones, muscle loss, low sex drive, and fat gain.  
      • Testosterone can be measured in blood, saliva, or urine.
      • Sleep and exercise help boost testosterone. 
      • Calorie restriction lowers testosterone, except during healthy weight loss.
      • A keto diet has been shown to increase testosterone levels more than a high-carb diet. 
      • High-fat diets are high in cholesterol, the building block of testosterone.

Want to know how keto is impacting your testosterone? Measure it. See how you feel, and consider getting a test. Tracking your biomarkers seems like a lot at first—but it’s how you measure change in your body. So have fun with it, and use that data to level up your health.

Regardless, whenever trying a new diet, be sure to consult your primary care physician for medical advice on whether the diet is a good fit for you.

The post How Does the Keto Diet Affect Testosterone? appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

Testosterone and the ketogenic diet are a lot more closely related than people seem to think. See it all comes down to the good old foundation of cholesterol. And whether you like it or not, cholesterol is actually good for us. I’m Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo and we’re going to break down how the keto diet can actually help boost your testosterone levels.

What is Cholesterol?

You see the first thing we have to look at, again, is cholesterol. Cholesterol is what is known as a steroid hormone. Now the word steroid automatically gets a bad rap, but in reality, a steroid hormone is a perfectly healthy thing within the human body. So cholesterol is a steroid hormone, and testosterone is a steroid hormone, and they’re called steroid hormones because they have a common theme. And that is the steroid ring which actually makes up the molecular structure of these hormones. Now we don’t need to go into the molecular breakdown, the molecular structure and all that. We’re going to save that for another day. We want to talk about the ketogenic diet and how it boosts testosterone levels.

How Does Cholesterol Become Testosterone?

So first we have to look at how cholesterol becomes testosterone. You see, cholesterol gets converted into something known as pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is sort of a master hormone that can be broken down into various other hormones. It can be broken down into estrogen, it can be broken down into testosterone. It all depends on the circumstance. And it’s done so by an enzyme known as Cytochrome P450. The Cytochrome P450 breaks down a lot of things. In fact it’s even involved in alcohol metabolism. But it has a big role when it comes down to taking the root core of cholesterol and breaking it down and turning it into something that’s usable by the body, generally, hormones. Now when we look at the ketogenic diet, 75%, or roughly thereof, is going to be fats when we look at our diet. So we have to remember that when we’re supporting our healthy cholesterol levels through the diet, we’re potentially giving ourselves more of a foundation to build testosterone off of. So this is all a very positive thing.

What are Lipid Rafts?

Cholesterol also plays a role in what are called lipid rafts. Now these lipid rafts are what essentially carry different proteins and different fats. And these lipid rafts assemble components for things like mTOR and IGF. Now what that means is it’s going to help someone build muscle, which has a direct correlation with testosterone. So when we have mTOR, which stands for mammalian target of rapamycin, we essentially have the anabolic switch. When mTOR is turned on and mTOR signaling can work because we have the healthy cholesterol, the testosterone within the human body can actually do the work. It can actually build muscle. It can actually do things. This also plays a big role with IGF. IGF is another thing, although unrelated to testosterone, it is related to overall muscle building. And the more muscle that we have, generally we start having more testosterone as well. So there is sort of a feedback system that happens there.

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research Study

Now let’s go ahead and look at a study that found the ketogenic diet had a powerful effect on not only cholesterol, but on testosterone, too. So this study was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. It was an 11 week study that took a look at people that were doing the traditional western diet, versus a very low carb ketogenic diet. Well what they found at the end of 11 weeks was that they did have an increase in total cholesterol levels. At first glance, people are like wow, we don’t want this increase, even though it was a subtle increase, it still goes against the grain of what we are normally hearing is good. But they also found that there is a 118 nanogram per deciliter increase in testosterone.

Now to give you an idea of reference range, the general positive reference range for testosterone levels is going to be anywhere from like 300 to 900 nanograms per deciliter. So when you see a 118 nanogram per deciliter increase in 11 weeks, that is a huge increase. That’s enough to take someone that is considered low testosterone into significantly higher testosterone and within normal range. That is very powerful. Now they also saw that there was a decrease in overall insulin levels. So there could be a correlation there. You see, the way that we can go down that rabbit hole is to start looking at how insulin plays a role in leydig cell function. You see we have leydig cells that come out of the testes. These leydig cells actually promote testosterone. They create testosterone. They are the epicenter for lack of a better way of saying it. Well, it’s been shown that insulin resistance because if we’re being exposed to so much insulin that we become resistant, can actually end up impeding the ability to produce leydig cells. So what that means is that the brain is still able to send the signal to say “Hey, create testosterone,” but then the leydig cells never have the opportunity to.

Ketogenic Diet Affects Testosterone in Two Ways

So in essence, the ketogenic diet affects testosterone in two ways. It affects it directly with the foundational fuel that it needs, the cholesterols, but then it also stops something that would normally stand in the way of the process. Now this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re just seeing that it’s positive results. We have to dive more into the research and we have to wait for more concrete evidence to come out as to exactly why this is occurring. But all we know, is if we give our body the foundation that it needs, then it can make what it needs for a successful, happy life. As always, keep it locked in here with Keto-Mojo and make sure if you’re testing, that you’re leaving the guess work out of the equation and leaving your measuring to the meter. I’ll see you in the next Keto-Mojo video.

For more information on keto and testosterone, read here.

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Guys and gals, if you’re utilizing the Keto Diet to get as lean as possible and to get in the best possible shape, then you’re doing the right thing. The problem I see is that a lot of people get a little bit weary of the Keto Diet, so they phase in and out of ketosis worrying that they’re going to lose all their precious hard-earned muscle. Hey, I’m Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo and today I want to break down why phasing in and out of the Ketogenic Diet is actually making it so you’re not reaching your goals and could be causing you to feel like garbage versus if you were to just stay in ketosis in the first place.

Relationship Between the Ketogenic Diet and Muscle Mass

What happens in the Ketogenic Diet is actually very muscle-sparing, but people don’t always talk about that. In general, the fitness community or people that are trying to get in really good shape in a relatively fast period of time end of going into the Ketogenic Diet thinking that they’re going to lose some fat, but then they bounce back into a carb fueled diet because they get nervous that they’re going to burn up their muscle. Now, this is a very natural response and usually what happens when someone starts a low carb diet, they drop a lot of water weight and they drop a lot of water inside the muscle as well. What ends up occurring is people that have muscle think that they’re losing a lot of muscle. When in reality, all that’s really happening is you’re losing some of that intercellular volume for a temporary amount of time. But I understand, it can totally scare you and put you off guard. In this case, we have to look at the science.

Beta hydroxybutyrate, the main ketone body that we use for fuel when we’re in ketosis is very muscle-sparing, and beta hydroxybutyrate is also what the Keto-Mojo Meter actually measures. You can directly measure how much muscle you’re ultimately saving by default by looking at how much beta hydroxybutyrate you have in your system. Beta hydroxybutyrate prevents what is called leucine oxidation, leucine is your primary amino acid that is associated with muscle anabolism. When leucine is being oxidized, you’re burning muscle, when it’s not being oxidized, you’re not burning muscle. When you’re in ketosis, beta hydroxybutyrate stops leucine oxidation, it preserves muscle.

International Society of Sports Nutrition Journal Study

There was a study that outlined this perfectly. This study was published in the journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and it took a look at 26 resistance-trained subjects and it had them undergo a pretty interesting bout of exercise and diet changes. They were divided into two groups; one group consumed a very low carb ketogenic diet and the other group consumed a traditional moderate carbohydrate Western diet. They had them resistance train for a number of weeks in the same fashion, no changes to the resistance training between the two groups. Well, the results at the end of the study were pretty alarming. The ketogenic diet group saw an increase of muscle mass of 9.5 pounds versus the western diet seeing an increase in muscle mass of 4.9 pounds, not nearly as much as the keto group.

Then we look at overall muscle mass, this is where it got pretty interesting, too. The keto group saw a .4-centimeter increase in overall muscle mass, whereas the western diet carbohydrate group only saw a 0.19 increase in muscle mass. That’s not nearly as much, obviously, but then we look at one more thing. When we look at the overall fat loss that occurred, it gets really exciting. The fat mass decreased by 4.9 pounds in the keto group versus 3.3 pounds in the carb group. This study showed that a ketogenic diet when compared next to a carb diet ended up not only preserving or actually adding muscle mass but actually burned more fat than the carb group as well. If this doesn’t settle your nerves a little bit, I don’t know what will.

Effects on Your Body of Going In and Out of Ketosis

Additionally, I want to talk about why you might feel cruddy when you go in and out of ketosis all the time. You see, what’s happening is you’re having these mineral fluctuations. On a ketogenic diet, yes, you lose some water weight and sodium, and you have to keep that sodium and water coming in. But once you’re there, you’re stabilized. If you’re constantly coming in and out of it, your kidneys don’t know what to do. You see, when you have carbs, you have insulin and insulin tells the kidneys to hold onto sodium. When you have extra sodium, you have extra water. So, what’s happening is if you’re going in and out of ketosis, you’re spiking your insulin up and then dropping it down, so the kidneys never really have a chance to play catch up. Your minerals are just all over the place, this is what causes that rundown feeling. If you just give it a go and you stay on the ketogenic diet, you’re going to balance out and you’ll find that those traditional cutting woes that you usually get where you feel like garbage, they tend to go away and you get lean and happy. Additionally, we have to look at fat adaptation.

What is Fat Adaptation?

If you stay on a ketogenic diet for long enough, your body becomes fat adapted where your cells learn how to use fat for fuel much better. If you’re constantly bouncing in and out of keto, you’re never getting that benefit. So sure, you’ll burn some fat. Sure, you’ll lose some water weight, but you’re never truly teaching your cells to burn fat and even if you stayed on the keto diet for six months and then went out of it, you’d still see a stronger benefit than you would if you were constantly going in and out every couple of weeks. That fat adaptation is critical, and it can shape shift the way that your fitness future goes for years to come simply by exercising the ketogenic diet properly.

The way that you can tell if you’re in ketosis is by measuring your blood ketone levels. Honestly, it’s a fun gamified way to be able to know how deep a state of ketosis you’re in, how much muscle you’re preserving and ultimately how much fat you’re burning. That’s why you want to put trust in Keto-Mojo utilizing their meter to truly take the guess work out of the equation and know when you’re honestly in ketosis and utilizing the most fat for fuel than you could possibly imagine. As always, make sure you’re keeping it locked in here with Keto-Mojo. Leave the guesswork out of the equation, leave the measuring to the meter and I’ll see you in the next video.

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